The renaming project to change the name of the Wikimedia Foundation to 'Wikipedia' meets the fierce opposition of the community

by Noj Han

The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the free encyclopedia Wikipedia (Wikipedia), renamed the world-famous name Wikipedia to the foundations and foundations for the reason that Wikimedia is not well known. We are working on a project that aims to attach to the exercise of. In response, volunteer community members who have supported Wikipedia for the past 20 years have responded to the opposition and created an open letter calling for the project to stop.

Community open letter on renaming-Meta
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_renaming

Non-profit organization of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia published an article called 'wiki media or Foundation should be called Wikipedia' in January 2020, to the people and asked for comment . Wikimedia is discussing rebranding in ' Wikimedia 2030 ', which discusses the future of the Foundation and the strategy of what it is aiming for, and the name change was mentioned as one of the strategies.

According to the Wikimedia Foundation, although the name Wikimedia was given in 2003, it is still unrecognized after 17 years. With the name Wikimedia, we can not tell what the Foundation is and the impact of our activities, and we are struggling to gather people, so we are calling the globally recognized name Wikipedia itself. It was suggested to use it in a project conducted by the Foundation.

Communications/Wikimedia brands/2030 movement brand project-Meta
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_movement_brand_project

However, on June 23, 2020, volunteers created a page called 'Open Letter regarding Renaming' requesting suspension of the rename project.

Community open letter on renaming-Meta
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_renaming

The outline written on this page is as follows.

'Volunteers have built Wikipedia's reputation as an independent, community-driven resource for over 20 years. Projects in the Wikimedia movement , including Wikipedia, thrive on a mechanism of people's consent and decentralization. A clear distinction between the Media Foundation and its stakeholders, as well as individual contributors, is essential, and any changes that affect this balance require informed consent and cooperation with the community. But I'm concerned about the use of the name Wikipedia for organizations and movements.'

In the open letter, renaming the following two points is high risk.

• There is no clear link between the name change and the benefit obtained, and the cost is too high for the unproven benefit.
-Renaming affects community cohesion and participation.

It is also pointed out that there are problems in the decision-making process in the following three points.

The Wikimedia Foundation's uncertain assumptions led to a lack of credibility in the branding process.
-In particular, during the community review conducted in August 2019, the legitimacy and assumptions of the process such as feedback and evaluation were questioned.
• The Foundation ignored the opinions of the Wikimedia community, despite the indications that the process was problematic.

There is a signature section in the open letter, and signatures have been gathered from community members and stakeholders since June 23, when the article was published.

Community open letter on renaming-Meta
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_open_letter_on_renaming

In addition, romwell, who is actually a member of the community, said on the technology bulletin board Hacker News that 'Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is valuable as a source of knowledge, and according to standards and formats that other Wikimedia projects do not follow. 'Wikipedia articles' is an encyclopedia article, not news, books, photos, data sets, dictionaries, or Wikimedia projects. Making Wikipedia an all-inclusive brand , It simply kills the brand itself,' and said he sent the contents to '[email protected]'.

They are accepting comments at [email protected] Here is what I sent t... | Hacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23646734